Taylor Duane secures $1.6M settlement for father and son seriously injured when stolen SUV crashes into their car
Alleged that dealership’s security measures fell short of industry standard
April 16, 2009 (BOSTON) – Taylor Duane Barton & Gilman recently obtained a $1.6 million settlement for a New Hampshire father and son who suffered traumatic injuries following a violent collision between their car and an SUV that had been stolen from a car dealership in Haverhill, Mass. minutes before the accident.
Taylor Duane partners and trial lawyers John J. Barton and Tamara Smith Holtslag represented the father and son in the case.
Facing life-threatening injuries, the son was flown by helicopter for treatment after being removed from the crumpled vehicle by the Jaws of Life. The force of the collision fractured the son’s neck and face, and he was in a coma for several days following the accident. The son has had several surgeries to reconstruct his face, and more are expected, but he’s expected to regain only 80 percent of his pre-accident appearance. The father broke his right leg and had his right knee and right hip replaced, and further surgeries are expected for him as well.
The father and son sued the Haverhill car dealership for failing to adequately protect its vehicles from theft. The dealership had no active security cameras when the SUV was stolen. The thief stole the master lock-box key from one of the owners in broad daylight.
As the lawsuit unfolded, Taylor Duane learned that the dealership’s owners had no effective “key control” measures in place with respect to their master lock-box keys, which unlocked 80 percent of their inventory. Prior to the SUV theft and accident, the owners and employees knew that at least one other car had been stolen earlier that week, yet they did nothing to better secure their vehicles. Taylor Duane further uncovered that the dealership took no measures whatsoever to secure their vehicles from theft even after one of the owners learned that the master lock-box key had been stolen the week of the accident.
An expert would have testified at trial that the dealership’s lack of adequate security measures deviated from industry standards and foreseeably led to the accident.
“The real turning point in this case,” Smith Holtslag said, “was when one of the thieves testified at his deposition how easy it was for him and his accomplice to ‘case out’ the dealership for days, during business hours, without being so much as approached by a salesperson or employee of the car dealership.
"Not only that," Smith Holtslag continued, “the thief also described how easy it was for him and his accomplice to walk into the dealership, also during business hours, steal the master lock box key from the owner, and then walk outside and actually test the master key out on the cars on the lot without being detected by any of the dealership staff. This testimony exemplified the complete lack of security by the dealership, which led to the thieves’ reckless operation of the SUV that hit our clients."
Barton added: "This was a tough case, made even more difficult by the car dealership's efforts to keep the underlying facts under wraps. Because the usual steps in discovery wouldn't have revealed all of the crucial facts, we, and especially Attorney Smith Holtslag, tracked down police officers, tow truck drivers, and the car thieves themselves to uncover evidence of the dealership's lax security and their callous disregard for the public's safety. The remarkable settlement in this case directly resulted from that tenacious investigation."
The dealership argued that the intervening actions by the car thieves absolved it of any responsibility for the injuries suffered by the father and son.
Barton and Holtslag, however, maintained that under Massachusetts law a car dealer can be held responsible for injuries if it negligently allows a vehicle to be stolen, and it’s reasonably foreseeable that someone could be injured by the thief’s improper operation of the vehicle.
About Taylor Duane
Taylor Duane is a leading civil litigation law firm in New England that helps businesses and individuals effectively and efficiently navigate complex legal matters. Its attorneys regularly try cases in federal and state courts, and represent individuals in complex personal injury cases other than medical malpractice matters. The Providence Business News named the firm in 2008 as one of Rhode Island’s Best Places to Work.
